Inaugurated in March 1998 the International Stadium Yokohama has the highest seating capacity of any stadium in Japan.

It hosted the final of 2002 Fifa World Cup in which Brazil beat Germany 2-0, as well as three first-round games, and is the home stadium of the Yokohama F Marinos football team.

The stadium will host the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup as the proposed new National Stadium in Tokyo will not be completed in time.

Yokohama’s long international connections go back to when its port was opened to the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, the UK and France in 1859.

It was the link to the UK that resulted in the origin of rugby in Japan. British soldiers stationed in Yokohama founding the Yokohama Football Club in 1866. A match took place there in 1873 between garrisons, England versus a Scotland-Ireland combined team.